THE FARM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 15, 18 January 1905, Page 7

THE FARM.

OTEEJFEEUING HOF^ES. It is perfectly safe to assert tbat thousands of work horses 'are injured by kindness. The owner thinks that Decause his team i 3 liand worked it oUght_ to be heavily fed. but he forgets that it is no- what a horse eats."but hat it digests that counts. Thi* is especriaily the case in summer, wheu there is much field work to be done and little time in which to do at. The horse hurries home, hot and weary, is given all he can "hog," and sroes out to the water trough, -where he fills up on water and goes on to work again. First of all, his stomach was not in a fit condition for food reception. The fatigued, hot, sweaty horse cannot digest food. Hewneeds a rest first and then a drink of water, which passes through the stomach and stays in the large intestines. If he eats grain and then drinks water, the food is largely washed out by the -water and passes to the small and large intestines in which such food is not digested, but decomposes, gives up gas and thus sets up more or less disturbance and distress. Under these circumstances a horse is not properly fed with six quarts of oats and all the hay he can gobble in the short interim of the noon hour. He has been fed, to be sure, but he has derived little benefit from b_3 food. All the benefit derived comes from the portion of the food digested, and that is very small when there is not sufficient time to masticate properly and then digest normally. In the busy season the work horse should have small amounts of concentrated, nutritious food—just such an amount as he cari masticate and digest. When maize is fed it adds fuel to t.he heat of his body, and does not supply the strength and vigour he most requires. That comes from oats, and time is needed for their Mpstieation. Hay is unnecssary and actually injurious when fed at noon. It is not digested while the horse is at work. It does not remain in the stiomach, but, like water, passes througii into the large intestines, where it lies inert or decomposing until a period of rest promotes the normal process o_t digestion. On general principles it will pay to cut in half the ration now being fed to work horses, provided they are given little time to masticate and digest their food. This will be found remedial where horses are evidently doing poorly, sweating too much, pantiing when at work, or having a tendency to "diarrhoea. They will do better on less food for the reason that they digest a greater proportion of its nutriment. Hay in summer time should only be fed very early in the morning and again at night, at which time the horse may have all he wants. Allow tbe drinking water before meals. —A. S. ALEXANDEK, V.S. HANDLING LIQUID MANURE.' A contributor to Hoard's Dairyman I have long been convinced that handlinrr manure ir- the liquid form is the true solution of the manure problem, at least for cow stables, an J" have planned my stable now being constructed, for the instalment of the liquid manure system. A short description may be helpful. t , , „_ I use a cement gutter back of my four-and-a-half-foot stall platform. This cmtter is semi-circular in crose section with a ten-inch radius, with upper edges rounded off to an inch radius to privent chipping. It is level from «nd to end. Sometimes a cow will stand back in this gutter, but not often, and on the whole no oftener than is the case with sloping-bottom gutters, and much less than where a flat-bottom gutter is used At the end of this gutter I place an air-tight sluice gate that can be opened and connect the gutter with the cistern or a closed drain leading to it Z Strainers or sieves should be used here, but the straining takes place later in the process. .. A. wooden swab is now made that will fit" a section of the gutt*r,_ the last three-fourths of an inch b«ng leather or rubber belting to be slightly puable and yet closely fit the gutter. A long handle for pushing is fitted to.the swa£ The cow usually voids enough of urine to carry off the excrement and the cut bedding that has fallen back from the stall at least over the smooth surface of a cement drain with no cracks and corners. A little water can be added, however, to advantage if an ample cistern has been provided. Now open the sluice gate and go to the other end with the swab, and with a slow, steady push the whole mass runs down into the cistern, leaving a gutter that only needs* little flushing or scrubbing to be clean enough to lie down in. Having the manure in the cistern where it can rot thoroughly and raP the strainers and separators can be used between that and the faucst or outlet, so that ordinarily only the liquid manure is drawn away. A larcger opening should be left in the cistern, however, so that the solid matter that remains after draining can be easily removedTo this end the cistern should be double, so that one-half can be filhng while the other half is being emptied— at least where the soiling system Is It is well also, though not essential, to have the cistern on a hillside where a roadway can be made below it, and the manure sprinkler filled by simply opening a faucet or valve-as locomotives are filled from elevated tanks. TKSs system has several advantages: 1 The semi-circular gutter is the most saritary. The gutter is the dirtiest and most dangerous place in the stable, and so buo-ht to be the most cleauable instead of the hardest to clean 9 The never-ending, dreaded, DaCKbreaking task of lifting up the filthy nmss by nasty shovelfuls, fouling one s clothes and polluting the air of the stable, is in great part eliminated and dairying made easier. Not a pound has to be lifted. Gravity does it all from beginning to end. 3 Much time is saved. A few minutes daily suffice to clean the stable. 4 Last but not least, not an ounce of fertiliser is lost—everything is saved. WOKMEATEN POTATOES. HOW TO PREVENT THIS. 1.904 will not be regarded as a bad year for the potato disease, neither can it be regarded as a good season to test the disease-resisiting capabilities of any varieties. A' wet year like last one

is the sort to prove whether a potato - wtH- resist disease or not, as the most tender and delicate are apt to go wrong in that unfortunate way, though showing little or no weakness in a genial season. We will therefore add little or nothing to our knowledge this year as [to whether certain kinds, particularly I new ones, are disease-resistera or not. But no one will regret or worry over that, sis to have the crops free from I disease is the most gratifying of all j attainments. But- if disease fails to ! make any progress or do harm, many frops suffer from worms, and in some soils they do much damage. All are familiar with their raids, as they honeycomb the tubers, and when these are , plentiful they make the potatoes very i unacceptable for the table. All soils , are capable of supplying the depreda- , tors, but soil very full of manure, or that has had potatoes in it often, is the worst, as worms abound there and make the potatoes their chief food. To avert this as much as possible—and it can be done almost Wholly—land subject to worms and intended for potatoes in 1905 should be dressed previous to ploughing in the autumn with three tons of fresh lime or one ton of gas lime to the acre. This is a preventive which all will benefit by, and may be relied on. Some might be disposed to add the lime in the spring or just before planting, but there is a sufficient objection to that, as farmyard and other manures are always used in planting potatoes, and to put these in with fresh lime would . immediately stir up a quarrel in which the dung and manures would be partially incapacitated. Apart from lime, kainit is an excellent worm antidote. Its value as manure is in the potash. Potatoes delight in this, and it increases both quantity and quality, but a considerable portion of it is salt, and it is this which prohibits and kills the worms. For this reason kainitgrown potatoes are generally clean. In a recent note, says Practitioner in 'Farmer and Stock-breeder," it is said autumn is the best time to apply kainit. I question this. It is such a very soluble manure that were I applying it in the autumn I would count on most of it having passed down the drains or being washed to the subsoil before the spring, and in the case of potatoes it is best put in the drills with the dung. It is on the spot then to keep the worms off and nourish the tubers, and it does both very efficiently. Five hundredweight per acre is a profitable dressing; some use less, but I never give more.